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© Philip Barron

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Epigraph
These things never quite work as you expect them to, Mr. Angier.
- David Bowie as Nikola Tesla, The Prestige


Comments

"Benchmarks"
Bitty: Having sort of finished with the school year, I've been going through the j...

Meesa think Spidey-Man 3 is vewy silly!
silas216: You, sir, are correct. I would add one more log to the fire: Star Wars...

Waveflux: This bit from the "official" STHS website as to why they built the homage t...

It's a gas
41: This weekend 87 was just a hair over $3.00 in my hood (Silver Spring/Takoma...

Waveflux: $3.19/gal. I was able to find it by using the map at the St. Louis Gas Pric...

Asked and answered: The interview meme
Waveflux: Inquiring minds want the bone to answer these questions: 1. Hurricanes or ...

bone: Rad. I'll get it done this weekend! :)...

In which we learn that "spox" = "spokesman"
Bitty: Sounds like something from a Dr. Seuss book: Spox in Sox ...

So when does he throw his Medal of Freedom into the Potomac?
Bitty: One wonders if that medal is displayed prominently in the Tenet home.</i...

bone: To answer the question posed in the title: Here's what he had to say (the ...


Regarding the Pfc. LaVena Johnson petition

Private First Class LaVena JohnsonIf you've come here looking for information on the story of Pfc. LaVena Johnson of Florissant, thank you. Three things:

1: Visit the dedicated petition site for posts and information.

2: Please sign the petition and pass word of it along.

3: Very important - please contact your Senator or Representative on the appropriate Armed Services Committee regading LaVena.

# | Filed on March 20, 2007 under Iraq | Comments (0)

Fighting accountability over there so we don't have to fight it here

Shorter Terry McCarthy of ABC News:

Congressional calls for accountability are worse than al-Qaeda.

Because the only reason Iraqi politicians aren't singing "Kumbaya" around the campfire is the United States Congress.

The stupidest article on Iraq this week. Mr. McCarthy, come get your trophy.

# | Filed on May 12, 2007 under Iraq | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Center for Media and Democracy notes LaVena Johnson story

Private First Class LaVena JohnsonDiane Farsetta, senior researcher for the Center for Media and Democracy, examines the subtexts of the April 24 House Oversight Committee hearing. In today's CMD Report titled "War vs. Democracy: Untold Stories from the Lynch / Tillman Hearing," Farsetta looks beyond the cases of Cpl. Pat Tillman and Pfc. Jessica Lynch to explore the rights and responsibilities of citizens during wartime when faced with military misinformation, embellishment, and deception.

A few things are clear. One is that the secrecy, deception and constraints sought by wartime administrations are anathema to the transparency, accountability and freedom necessary to democracy. As James Madison warned, "Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other."

Another truism is that citizens retain the right to receive information and provide guidance to their government during wartime. The last is that, while security concerns may legitimately restrict what information can be shared when, maintaining civilian oversight of war operations helps ensure that human rights standards are upheld.

Farsetta takes special note of Pfc. LaVena Johnson and other soldiers who died or were wounded under unexplained circumstances in Iraq and elsewhere. The report goes on to focus on the many aspects of the committee hearing that were glossed over or ignored altogether by mainstream press coverage.

Farsetta's report is well worth reading. It is welcome not only for its recognition of LaVena Johnson and other fallen soldiers, but its exposure of a negligent media and its insights into the broader costs to democracy brought about by the war.

(As before, I ask you to sign the LaVena Johnson petition to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, and to contact your legislator on those committees. Thanks.)

# | Filed on May 11, 2007 under LaVena Johnson | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Gawkeriffic

I'm sure that the sprawling Gawker blog empire represents a cultural toxin, ultimately quite detrimental to society, but I enjoy the blogs immensely just the same. They help the tedium of the workday go down a bit more smoothly. The commenters are awesome.

In order, it's Deadspin (sports), then Defamer (LA), then the mothership (NYC). I read Wonkette (politics) only now and again; they linked to me once, which was pretty cool. And funny. I occasionally look at Lifehacker (personal info tech). I can't visit Fleshbot (porn) per terms of my employment. Odd that Fleshbot is missing from the home company's advertising page. I'm sure it's just an oversight which will be rectified. Prurience needs sponsors too, you know!

There are others, but you can go read about them yourself on the advert page.

# | Filed on May 11, 2007 under Blogging | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dropping off baby

The concept of a drop-off facility for unwanted infants may be new to Japan, but not elsewhere. "Baby-Klappe" hatches at hospitals are being pushed in ad campaigns in Germany in response to several documented infanticides. Here in the US, the emphasis has been on more general safe haven legislation, sparked in large part by a query made in 1998 by WPMI reporter Jodi Brooks to county District Attorney John M. Tyson, Jr. in Mobile, Alabama. A Stateline.org article by John Nagy relates this exchange between the two following the trial of a mother and daughter convicted of drowning the daughter's unwanted infant son:

Brooks approached Tyson with an idea. "Why not let these women just take their unwanted baby to an area hospital, leave it there, and walk away. Is that a crime? Would you prosecute?" she asked.

"It was an easy decision," Tyson recalls. "From a prosecutor's point of view, what do I want? To build my reputation on the number of mothers I put in prison? There's too many casualties here. The baby's dead; mom's got to go to prison.

"What good does that do anybody? If we can prevent it from happening and save both baby's life and mom's life, you know what? That's my job," he says.

The advocacy of Brooks and Tyson resulted in Alabama's passage of a safe haven law. Other states have followed suit. California has had the Safely Surrendered Baby Law on the books since 2001, while Illinois made its Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act permament in 2005.

The aspect of total anonymity for people handing off unwanted infants at a drop-off box is problematic, as it closes off opportunities to gain important medical information about the child. As with most safe haven legislation, California's SSB law guarantees confidentiality while encouraging the surrendering individual to fill out a medical history questionnaire regarding the baby. Even without such information, however, getting an infant into the hands of professionals and (eventually) loving caregivers makes for a better outcome than the terrible alternative.

# | Filed on May 11, 2007 under Family Matters | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"Benchmarks"

Fresh from his come-to-Jesus meeting with fellow Republicans over Iraq, George Bush is now mouthing the b-word: benchmarks. What a difference a few days make. Why, it was just a couple of weeks ago that the White House was saying no way:

Rice: Bush Would Oppose Iraq Benchmarks

President Bush will not sign any war spending bill that penalizes Iraq's government for failing to make progress, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday, a fresh warning to Congress about challenging him. [...]

"To begin now to tie our own hands and to say 'We must do this if they don't do that' doesn't allow us the flexibility and creativity that we need to move this forward," Rice said.

But after moderate Republicans screwed up the nerve to tell the president that the greatest prize of all was at stake - not American blood and treasure or stability in the MIddle East, but the political fortunes of the GOP - the Decider has decided, er, otherwise:

One message I have heard from people from both parties is that the idea of benchmarks makes sense. And I agree. It makes sense to have benchmarks as a part of our discussion on how to go forward. And so I've empowered Josh Bolten to find common ground on benchmarks. And he will continue to have dialogue with both Republicans and Democrats.

Dare we take Bush at his word? Even members of his own party say he's plumb run out of trustworthiness on Iraq:

Top Bush allies in Congress have been telling the White House for months that the president has lost credibility with the American people on the war. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in January that Bush needed to let Petraeus be the administration's spokesman on Iraq because Bush and his team are being tuned out.

The president will continue to stall and his hatchetman Cheney will continue to snarl, but in the end they'll give in to reality. The sobering thing about Iraq is that events are well out of Bush's hands, and have been for some time. For reasons both domestic and foreign, adopting a set of goals with teeth isn't a difficult choice: it's the only choice. Even so, it's just one step on a long and humbling road out of Baghdad.

# | Filed on May 10, 2007 under Iraq | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Hell is high water

With any luck, it won't match the trials of 1993, but the floodwaters are headed for St. Louis. Communities upstream along the Missouri River are treading water. A lot of water.

# | Filed on May 10, 2007 under St. Louis / BiState | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Meesa think Spidey-Man 3 is vewy silly!

Dana Loesch (in her secret Pop Mama identity at the P-D) puts the mock on George Lucas for calling Spider-Man 3 "silly":

This from the man who created JAR JAR BINKS, the character which shattered all of my hopes and dreams for EP1, WHY GEORGE, WHY? Also - why does Hayden Christensen talk like Harry Connick Jr. throughout the prequels? Lucas is just mad that he didn’t do the special effects.

Oliver Willis, no stranger to pop culture, concurs snarkily:

Um, has Lucas seen a movie I like to call "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace"? Because by comparison that makes Spider-Man 3, a movie I didn't like, look like "plots-a-poppin'" I like the Star Wars films a lot, but it's no mistake that the best movie out of all 6 - The Empire Strikes Back - is not directed by George Lucas.

I'm not looking forward to seeing Spidey Tres myself and the reluctance considerably predates anyone's review of the flick - too many villains, too many sub-plots, and the Venom concept was one of the reasons I quit reading Marvel comics altogether - but suppose I'll have to see it just for the sake of completion (that and Kirsten Dunst, if I can get past the sappy Peter/MJ storyline). This all feels uncomfortably like the huge falloff between the wonderful X-Men 2: United and its execrable follow-up, except that X-Men: The Last Stand substituted Brett Ratner for Bryan Singer while all the Spider-Man movies have been directed by Sam Raini.

But back to Lucas, who really has no right to criticize anybody else's work: He spoiled an iconic story with a series of awful sequels/prequels, each of them worse than the last (excepting Empire, whose direction and screenplay were handled by others). And he spent took a lot of time and spent a lot of money doing so. You are forgiven for thinking that the root of Lucas' disparaging remarks is likely just plain old green-eyed envy: for all its reported flaws, Spider-Man 3 is making a ton of money...and, as noted, without employing Lucas' hegemonic cash cow Industrial Light & Magic for the special effects.

# | Filed on May 10, 2007 under Movies | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Purplish prose

The lede:

A man on a bicycle was unable to outrace two gunmen and eight bullets Sunday night.

If you didn't know from the link that this florid bit of journalism came from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, you'd swear you were reading the Evening Whirl.

# | Filed on May 07, 2007 under Journamalisming | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mind in the gutter

No, it's not what you think.

# | Filed on May 07, 2007 under Ars Domestica | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Bush a un nouveau petit ami

God never closes a door but He ouvre une fenêtre, or something like that. Tony Blair's long walk to the dugout will be more or less compensated by the ascension of rightist Nicolas Sarkozy to the French presidency. The White House blows kisses from afar.

You could argue that the current crop of French Socialists would bumble a quiche Lorraine. You could also argue that French voters are in a law-and-order kind of mood these days. Interesting times lie ahead.

# | Filed on May 07, 2007 under International Politics | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sudden realizations

This one came to me in the shower, of all places: I do not own a copy of The Thing from Another World.

Well, hell. I need to remedy this.

# | Filed on May 05, 2007 under Movies | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)